SAN DIEGO — Anthony Ortega did almost everything imaginable in a music career that stretched over 70 years that included leading a weekly Sunday jam session — into his mid-90s — until his health began to fail in August.
He collaborated with Frank Sinatra and Frank Zappa, Tony Bennett and Tony Orlando, Marvin Gaye and Quincy Jones. He performed on film soundtracks, including playing the bravura improvised sax solo in the Oscar-nominated "An Unmarried Woman," and was in the house bands for ABC's "The Julie Andrews Show" and "The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour." He also taught jazz master classes at universities in France and made cutting-edge albums that won international acclaim.
But there is at least one notable thing Ortega — who died Sunday at the age of 94 — did not do, and it was by choice.
"In 1972, Dad had the opportunity to do a concert tour with Elvis Presley," recalled Kathy Herington, one of Ortega's three daughters. "But my brother was about to graduate from high school and Dad didn't want to miss the ceremony. He was the greatest father, and he always made time for us."
The tour went on without Ortega, who had appeared — playing sax at a street block party — in "Change of Habit," a 1969 feature film that co-starred Presley and Mary Tyler Moore.
"When I was a kid, Dad used to take me with him sometimes when he was playing in Leighton Noble's big band in the South Shore Room at Harrah's Lake Tahoe," recalled Antony Ortega Jr., a Los Angeles dentist.
"I got to watch Dad rehearse with Nat 'King' Cole and Barbra Streisand, and saw him perform with Jerry Lewis. Dad would play a flute solo and Jerry would pretend he was doing the solo. My dad loved to play music, and he couldn't get enough of it, almost to the day he passed away."
Ortega died early Sunday morning at Scripps Hospital Encinitas, where he had been admitted on Thursday. The cause of death was complications from pneumonia, according to Herington.
The devoted saxophonist's final performance took place Aug. 21 at Mr. Peabody's Bar & Grill in Encinitas, where — since 2011 — he had led a Sunday jam session nearly every week until his health began to falter late this summer.
Ortega's musical passion and stamina saw him play opening sets at Mr. Peabody's that lasted up to three hours. His only concession to age was to perform seated rather than standing.
"Tony was astounding," said pianist Art Olson, who owns Artistic Pianos in San Marcos and was Ortega's longtime jam session bandmate.
"He was extraordinary as a musician and as a person. For the first seven or eight years I was with him at Mr. Peabody's, he would play about three hours for the opening set. More recently, he tapered off to two hours. He was a monster!"
Bass great Mark Dresser agreed.
"Tony was a master," said Dresser, a music professor at the University of California San Diego who played regularly with Ortega at San Diego jam sessions in the 1970s.
"As a musician, Tony was relaxed yet intense," Dresser continued. "He was a true improviser, both completely rooted in the tradition, essentially linear, and yet completely free in his playing. He had an expansive sound ... rhythmic vitality, and a willingness to dig into the sonic corners of where the music took him. He was remarkable."
Playing sax was a dream
Anthony Robert Ortega was born June 7, 1928, in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. He began playing alto saxophone in ninth grade, followed by clarinet a year later. His sax teacher, Lloyd Reese, had also mentored such future jazz luminaries as Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy.
"I was always inspired by music, from a very early age. And my whole dream was to play the sax," Ortega said in a 2016 San Diego Union-Tribune interview.
After serving in the U.S. Army from 1948 to 1951, he joined vibraphone star Lionel Hampton's big band. While on a tour of Europe with Hampton, Ortega met pianist/vibraphonist Mona Orbeck in Oslo, Norway.
The couple, who became professional music collaborators, married and celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary this year. They moved to El Monte in 1954 and Hollywood two years later. They relocated to Lake Tahoe around 1960 and Azusa in 1965, before settling in Encinitas in northern San Diego County in 1975.
Ortega's debut album, "The Anthony Ortega Quartet," was released in 1954. His all-star 1961 album, "A Man and His Horns," featured him double-tracking all of the multiple horn parts.
"I over-dubbed and did the first and second alto parts, and then the second and third tenor parts and the baritone parts," Ortega recalled in his 2016 Union-Tribune interview. "It came out like a sax section. The recording session took 12 hours — and I had about $2 in my pocket at the time!"
Ortega's most recent album, "Afternoon in Paris," was released in 2007 by the Swiss record label Hat Hut. He was the subject of the 1994 book, "Central Avenue Sounds: Anthony Ortega," and the 2007 film documentary, "The Street We Took."
Yet, while jazz was his greatest musical passion, Ortega's instrumental versatility enabled him to work with such diverse singers as Sinatra, Streisand and Jose Feliciano. Ortega's big-band credits included ensembles led by Hampton, Gerald Clayton, Maynard Ferguson, Woody Herman and others. He also worked in smaller groups with Dizzy Gillespie, Chico Hamilton, Buddy Colette, Gigi Gryce and more.
Ortega performed on the soundtracks to an array of films, including "Gloria," "The Pawnbroker" and "I, The Jury." His TV credits included "The Lucy Show" and "The Bobby Darin Show."
"When we were living in L.A., we would gather around the TV and watch Dad when he played on Julie Andrews' show," recalled Ortega's daughter Kathy, who sang in the San Diego band The Fabulous Mar Dels from 1994 to 2008. "Dad got us her autograph and we were like: 'Wow! That's Mary Poppins!' "
For all his many credits with other musicians, it was as a solo artist, composer and band leader that Ortega shined brightest. The element of surprise was paramount in his playing, whether in a traditional or experimental context, or somewhere in between.
'A musical culmination'
"I like to have a pleasant sound and make it pretty. However, in different instances, you get rougher and make it more like an exploration," Ortega said in his 2016 Union-Tribune interview.
"The point is not to overdo any one particular thing — and to look at it as a story, or a value, within the composition that you are trying to get across. I want to make it so you can feel it, in other words. I am trying to make a musical culmination of all the different things you can do. And I try and make sense of it, so that it doesn't sound corny to some people and doesn't sound too advanced to others."
Ortega's daughter Kathy and son Tony Jr. both marvel at how devoted their father was to music, on stage and off, and to his family.
"He was always practicing at home, always improving," Tony Jr. said. "I hope people will listen to his albums and — because he was so good — ask: 'How come he wasn't famous?' But his dedication was to the music, not to trying to become a star."
"Dad was very humble," Kathy agreed. "He lived in the moment and lived his music to the fullest. Even in the hospital on Saturday, his last night before he died, he was talking about how much he loved playing with Lionel Hampton. He said that going on tour in Europe with Hampton was one of the highlights of his life, because that's when he met my mom in Norway.
"Besides playing music (that went) in the stratosphere, my dad could play a bossa-nova or a ballad and bring you to tears. He was able to make his living doing what he loved most, playing music."
Ortega is survived by his wife, Mona; son Tony Jr. of Los Angeles; daughters Kathy Herington and Lisa Ortega, both of Encinitas; Kim Backus of North Carolina; and five grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Arrangements for a memorial service have not yet been finalized.
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